The Mexican army says it has killed 25 suspected drug cartel gunmen in a clash near the US border.

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Iniquity Abounding

“And because iniquity•Strongs 458: anomia, an-om-ee´-ah; from 459; illegality, i.e. violation of law or (genitive case) wickedness:—iniquity, x transgress(-ion of) the law, unrighteousness.
•Strongs 459: anomos, an´-om-os; from 1 (as a negative particle) and 3551; lawless, i.e. (negatively) not subject to (the Jewish) law; (by implication, a Gentile), or (positively) wicked:—without law, lawless, transgressor, unlawful, wicked. shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.”
—Matthew 24:12

The army said a patrol came under fire as it approached an apparent training camp that had been spotted during an aerial search.

Two soldiers were wounded in the fighting in Tamaulipas state.

Tamaulipas has been a major focus of violence between drug cartels competing for control of smuggling routes into the US.

The rival Zetas and Gulf cartels have been waging a bloody turf war there.

More than 28,000 people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon ordered the army and federal police to fight the cartels in 2006.

The rising violence has led to growing criticism of Mr Calderon’s drug policy, with opposition groups saying it has done nothing to stop the flow of drugs to the US.

In his state of the union address on Thursday morning, the president admitted the violence was worsening but defended his approach, saying the cartels were being weakened.

“The capture or killing of important criminal leaders has made the crime organizations more desperate,” Mr Calderon said.

“It is an ever more bloody war between organized crime groups fighting for territory, markets and routes.”

Mr Calderon insisted the fight had to go on.

“If we want a safe Mexico for the Mexicans of the future, we must take on the cost of achieving it today,” he said.

Russia announced a 12-month extension of its grain export ban on Thursday, raising fears about a return to the food shortages and riots of 2007-08 which spread through developing countries dependent on imports.

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Famines and Troubles

“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines•Strongs 3042:limos, lee-mos´; probably from 3007 (through the idea of destitution); a scarcity of food:—dearth, famine, hunger. and troubles•Strongs 5016: tarache, tar-akh-ay´; feminine from 5015; disturbance, i.e. (of water) roiling, or (of a mob) sedition:—trouble(-ing). these are the beginnings of sorrows•Strongs 5604 din, o-deen´; akin to 3601; a pang or throe, especially of childbirth:—pain, sorrow, travail.
•Strongs 3601: odune, od-oo´-nay; from 1416; grief (as dejecting):—sorrow..”
—Mark 13:8

The announcement by Vladimir Putin came as the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation called an emergency meeting to discuss the wheat shortage, and riots in Mozambique left seven dead.

The unrest in Maputo, in which 280 people were also injured, followed the government’s decision to raise bread prices by 30 per cent. Police opened fire on demonstrators after thousands turned out to protest against the price hikes, burning tyres and looting food warehouses.

Although agricultural officials and traders insist that wheat and other crop supplies are more abundant than in 2007-08, officials fear the deadly Mozambique riots could be replicated.

The announcement by Vladimir Putin came as the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation called an emergency meeting to discuss the wheat shortage, and riots in Mozambique left seven dead.

The unrest in Maputo, in which 280 people were also injured, followed the government’s decision to raise bread prices by 30 per cent. Police opened fire on demonstrators after thousands turned out to protest against the price hikes, burning tyres and looting food warehouses.

Although agricultural officials and traders insist that wheat and other crop supplies are more abundant than in 2007-08, officials fear the deadly Mozambique riots could be replicated.

The 2007-08 food shortages, the most severe in 30 years, set off riots in countries from Bangladesh to Mexico, and helped to trigger the collapse of governments in Haiti and Madagascar.

The Russian announcement extended an export ban first announced last month until late December 2011, sending wheat and other cereals prices to near a two-year high.

The FAO said that “the concern about a possible repeat of the 2007-08 food crisis” had resulted in “an enormous number” of inquiries from member countries. “The purpose of holding this meeting is for exporting and importing countries to engage.”

Russia is traditionally the world’s fourth-largest wheat exporter, and the export ban has already forced importers in the Middle East and North Africa, the biggest buyers, to seek supplies in Europe and the US.

Mr Putin said Moscow could “only consider lifting the export ban after next year’s crop has been harvested and we have clarity on the grain balances”. He added that the decision to extend the ban was intended to “end unnecessary anxiety and to ensure a stable and predict-able business environment for market participants”.

“This is quite serious,” said Abdolreza Abbassian, of the FAO in Rome. “Two years in a row without Russian exports creates quite a disturbance.” Dan Manternach, chief wheat economist at Doane Agricultural Services in St Louis, added: “This is a wake-up call for importing nations about the reliability of Russia.”

Jakkie Cilliers, director of South Africa’s Institute of Security Studies, said there was concern over a repeat of the protests of 2008: “That certainly strengthened a return of the military in politics in Africa.”

European wheat prices on Thursday hit €231.5 a tonne, just shy of last month’s two-year high of €236. Wheat prices have surged nearly 70 per cent since January, and analysts forecast further rises after Russia’s decision and concerns about weather damage to Australia’s crop.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010. You may share using our article tools. Please don’t cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.

China recently conducted a space test involving two satellites that rendezvoused several hundred miles above Earth in a maneuver analysts say will likely boost Beijing’s anti-satellite weapons program.

And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.”
—Revelation 16:12

The U.S. Strategic Command, the military nuclear warfighting command whose mission includes ensuring freedom of acton in space, tracked the two satellites but has not heard from the secretive Chinese military that runs Beijing’s space program, including its anti-satellite missile system.

“Our analysts determined there are two Chinese satellites in close proximity of each other,” a defense official told Inside the Ring. “We do not know if they have made physical contact. The Chinese have not contacted us regarding these satellites.”

There were concerns that a collision of the two orbiters would cause them to break up and create debris that could threaten other satellites and spacecraft.

China in January 2007 fired a ground-based anti-satellite missile that destroyed one of its orbiting weather satellites. The test created a debris field of thousands of pieces of metal that is expected to be a damage risk for satellites and spacecraft in that orbit for decades.

The defense official said the Pentagon wants all nations to “act responsibly in space to help prevent mishaps, misperceptions and mistrust.”

Strategic Command publishes data on satellites and debris in orbit on a website, www.space-track.org, specifically for “this effort to be a responsible actor in space,” the official said.

Military specialists say maneuvering close to satellites is a key capability for space warfare. The capability can be used for repairs, intelligence gathering, or during military operations for jamming, capturing or destroying satellites.

The Pentagon is closely watching China’s space weapons program, which is considered a strategic asymmetric warfare tool to be used against U.S. commercial and military satellites in a conflict. The military uses satellites for everything from guiding missiles to navigating at sea. Officials said that China, using less than two dozen ASAT missiles, could cripple the U.S. military electronically with satellite attacks.

Internet news reports from Russia, China and the United States first reported last week that the two Chinese satellites conducted a close inspection of each other in near-Earth orbit on Aug. 22. One satellite identified as SJ-12 carried out a series of maneuvers in its rendezvous with an older satellite called SJ-06F.

After the encounter, the orbit of second satellite changed, indicating it may have been bumped by the maneuvering one. The Strategic Command data indicated that the satellites came as close as 200 meters from each other just before a possible collision.

Asked about the rendezvous, a second defense official referred to the Pentagon’s latest annual report on China’s military that warns Beijing is boosting its space warfare capabilities.

“China is expanding its space-based intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, navigation, and communications satellite constellations,” the report said. “In parallel, China is developing a multi-dimensional program to improve its capabilities to limit or prevent the use of space-based assets by potential adversaries during times of crisis or conflict.”

James Oberg, a space affairs analyst, said the rendezvous appears linked to the military, which is in charge of the all space programs in China.

“If the successful rendezvous is real — and there are growing indications it was — China’s continuing secrecy about it is a distressing repudiation of the transparency needed to assuage our anxieties about some potential applications of this new capability,” Mr. Oberg said.

Additionally, Mr. Oberg said an “alarming aspect” of the satellite test was how space watchers in the West completely missed it. The test has “blown away their comfortable assumptions about Beijing’s intentions and capabilities,” he said.

Covert Kandahar war

The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan said on Wednesday that the covert phase of the major military operation to retake the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar has been under way for weeks and has inflicted heavy casualties on the Taliban.

It involves the use of intelligence and special operations forces in a covert war against the Islamist militia.

“The special-ops campaign of intelligence-led precision operations in Kandahar province began in earnest over three months ago,” Army Gen. David H. Petraeus told Inside the Ring. “It has featured a very high optempo and has taken a significant toll on the enemy.” Optempo is shorthand for the pace of operations.

“Nonetheless, planned ‘clear and hold’ operations will be necessary in certain areas of the province that we’ve recently learned have been sanctuaries for five or more years,” he said.

A military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said “the operation in Kandahar is in the intelligence phase.”

“That involves finding the cells and networks and then taking down the leaders,” the official said.

The intelligence phase is part of the broader military campaign plan for the strategic southern city of about 500,000 people.

After the Taliban cells and networks are eliminated, the next phase calls for beefing up civilian infrastructure and public services, and helping make sure the Kabul government finds reliable Afghan officials to take charge of the local government, which is considered a difficult challenge.

The operation is being called “Hamkari Baraye Kandahar,” or “Cooperation for Kandahar,” and is an unconventional military offensive involving about 25,000 NATO and Afghan troops in the city and surrounding countryside.

Gen. Petraeus told NATO TV on Tuesday that the Taliban’s momentum in some areas of Kandahar has been reversed, “but clearly there’s a lot more work to be done.”

“The Taliban are fighting back very hard because this is Mullah Omar’s hometown, if you will, this is the iconic place of the Taliban, and so it’s very important to them and that will be tough,” he said, noting the Taliban’s leader.

Carrier update

The Pentagon confirmed this week that the aircraft carrier strike group led by the USS George Washington will not join the U.S.-South Korean joint exercises set for this month in the Yellow Sea. The absence of the carrier comes amid protests from the Chinese military that a carrier presence in the sea would threaten China.

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell rejected suggestions that Chinese military statements opposing deployment of the carrier to the Yellow Sea war games had anything to do with canceling its participation.

“The USS George Washington won’t be going into Yellow Sea in September, but it has nothing to do with China,” Mr. Morrell told Inside the Ring. “It has to do with the nature of the next [anti-submarine warfare] exercise. That said, you and others can rest assured that the GW will be in Yellow Sea again soon, when appropriate and on our terms.”

The carrier strike group is currently in the South China Sea.

The Ring first reported July 29 that the carrier visit was canceled and that the decision coincided with statements like those from Chinese Maj. Gen. Zhu Chenghu, who warned in July that “if the United States truly wants to take into account the overall interests of the Sino-U.S. relationship, then it must on no account send its USS Washington to the Yellow Sea.”

Mr. Morrell then stated Aug. 5 during a press briefing that the carrier “will exercise in the Yellow Sea” but he declined to say when.

Asked about the comment, Mr. Morrell said, “I never said the GW would be part of the next exercises, only that it would be back in the Yellow Sea as part of this series of exercises.”

Bill Hawkins, a consultant specializing in Asian affairs said: “Failure to send the George Washington carrier group into the international waters of the Yellow Sea because of Chinese protests sends a signal of weakness rather than resolve in terms of U.S. support for South Korea.”

Spies onboard

Talk about a spy coming in from the cold.

When the air outside starts to get a bit frosty this November, former CIA DirectorMichael Hayden will be enjoying warm sea air in the Caribbean, along with dozens of other former spies.

Mr. Hayden has signed on as the top attraction for the “SpyCruise,” an annual charity boat trip begun in 2002 to raise money for the CIA Officers Memorial Foundation and the Scott Vallely Soldiers’ Memorial Fund.

“I think the one tie that binds our passengers together and spurs them to sail with us is a continued interest in national security matters, a desire to listen to and learn from real experts and without a doubt, patriotism,” former CIA officer Bart Bechtel, who serves as “spyskipper,” told special correspondent Rowan Scarborough.

Spies as celebrities seems to draw a cruise crowd.

“To many passengers, this is a great opportunity to meet and network with experts and like-minded individuals and businessmen while discussing national security matters, as well as relaxing on a Caribbean cruise after the November elections,” Mr. Bechtel said.

Cost ranges from $1,000 to $2,700 per passenger, depending on the stateroom selected. Speakers receive expenses only.

Another former CIA director, Porter Goss, also will be on board. His lecture: “Radical Fundamentalism and (Judeo-Christian) Western Civilization Are Irreconcilable.”

Mr. Hayden’s lecture will be “Iran’s Pursuit of Nukes and War on Terror: Continuity, and Change Between the 43rd and 44th Presidents.”

“This is the first with such high-level folks,” Mr. Bechtel said.

Despite all the worry about the sluggish US economy, businesses and investors are finding an even bigger reason to be cautious these days: the political mess in Washington.

To view dictionary popup window put your cursor on the blue words

Perplexity

“…upon the earth distress•Strongs 4928: sunoche, soon-okh-ay´; from 4912; restraint, i.e. (figuratively) anxiety: — anguish, distress. of nations, with perplexity•Strongs 640: aporia, ap-or-ee´-a; from the same as 639; a (state of) quandary:—perplexity.
•Strongs 639: aporeo, ap-or-eh´-o; from a compound of 1 (as a negative particle) and the base of 4198; to have no way out, i.e. be at a loss (mentally):— (stand in) doubt, be perplexed….”
—Luke 21:25

Divided Nation

“But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom•Strongs 932: basileia, bas-il-i´-ah; from 935; properly, royalty, i.e. (abstractly) rule, or (concretely) a realm (literally or figuratively): — kingdom, + reign. divided•Strongs 1266: diamerizo, dee-am-er-id´-zo; from 1223 and 3307; to partition thoroughly (literally in distribution, figuratively in dissension): — cloven, divide, part. against itself is brought to desolation•Strongs 2049: eremoo, er-ay-mo´-o; from 2048; to lay waste (literally or figuratively): — (bring to, make) desolate(-ion), come to nought.; and a house divided against a house falleth.”
—Luke11:17

“Businesses—especially smaller businesses, independent businesses—they don’t know what their cost structures are going to be because of government-imposed changes,” David Kotok, founder of Cumberland Advisors, said on CNBC this week. “Half the US economy’s holding back because of this great uncertainty that’s coming from Washington.”

Investors, too, are holding back, with control of Congress up for grabs in November and the possibility of sharp policy changes after that. Market pros cite a number of issues—the Bush tax cuts, possible repeal of health care reform, the deficit—for all the unease.

The market, in fact, has basically moved sideways all summer, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 [.SPX 1090.10 9.81 (+0.91%) ] virtually unchanged since May 25. Investors, meanwhile, have fled equity funds and plowed money into bonds.

“Why are we stuck in this range? It’s not the (economic growth) issue,” says Nadav Baum, executive vice president at BPU Investment Management in Pittsburgh. “It’s the issue of what’s going to happen in November with the election and what’s going to happen with the Bush tax cuts. You’ve got all this uncertainty and…when there’s more uncertainty, people get more uncomfortable with equities.”

Some pros, like Keith Springer, president of Capital Financial Advisory Services, think investors would be just fine with the kind of legislative gridlock that gripped Washington in the mid-1990s, when then-President Bill Clinton battled with a Republican-controlled Congress.

In fact, Springer predicts a strong rally if the Republicans manage to take control of at least one congressional chamber after the November election.

“There’s a push-pull in the market right now where nobody wants to go through the pain of what we need to get the economy back in shape,” he said. “But at the same time nobody wants to stop spending money to make it better.”

Investors like gridlock in Washington partly because it removes the possibility of major changes being made that could rattle the landscape.

When the GOP wrested control from the Democrats in the 1994 mid-term elections, the previously moribund S&P 500 gained 34 percent in 1995, another 20 percent in 1996, 31 percent in 1997, 27 percent in 1998 and 19.5 percent in 1999 before hitting a wall in 2000.

“Gridlock would probably make this market soar,” Springer says.

In the interim, investors have been trying to outfox the market, employing a buy-the-dips sell-the-rallies stock strategy and going full-bore into bonds.

Many investors have been looking to the Federal Reserve for direction, trying to stay ahead of the central bank as it continues measures, such as buying Treasurys, to boost money flow in the economy, says Kotok of Cumberland Advisors.

“The Fed does not do these trades in isolation,” Kotok said in a note to clients earlier this week. “The rest of the world is watching, trading, investing, swapping, hedging, and attempting to front-run the Fed’s tsunami every single minute.”

God did not create the universe and the “Big Bang” was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics, the eminent British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking argues in a new book.

(See editors note below)

To view dictionary popup window put your cursor on the blue words

“O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane•Strongs 952: bebelos, beb´-ay-los; from the base of 939 and belos (a threshold); accessible (as by crossing the door-way), i.e. (by implication, of Jewish notions) heathenish, wicked: — profane (person). and vain babblings •Strongs 2757: kenophonia, ken-of-o-nee´-ah; from a presumed compound of 2756 and 5456; empty sounding, i.e. fruitless discussion: — vain., and oppositions•Strongs 477: antithesis, an-tith´-es-is; from a compound of 473 and 5087; opposition, i.e. a conflict (of theories): — opposition. of science falsely so called:”
—1 Timothy 6:20

Jesus Said

“But from the beginning•Strongs 746: arche, ar-khay´; from 756; (properly abstract) a commencement, or (concretely) chief (in various applications of order, time, place, or rank): — beginning, corner, (at the, the) first (estate), magistrate, power, principality, principle, rule.
•Strongs 756: archomai, ar´-khom-ahee; middle voice of 757 (through the implication, of precedence); to commence (in order of time): — (rehearse from the) begin(-ning).
•Strongs 757: archo, ar´-kho; a primary verb; to be first (in political rank or power): — reign (rule) over. of the creation God made them male and female.”
—Mark 10:6

Editors Note: A hopeless brilliant man with strange ideas!• Recently Steven told the world to escape earth for it will be destroyed. (see link #1 below)
• A short time before that announcement, Steven declared that there are spacemen and that they are dangerous. (see link #2 below)
•Therefore, if we are to escape earth, we will have to flee into the arms of the evil spacemen.
•Not much hope there.
•Steven would do better to seek the Lord and find the hope of the believer, the second coming of Jesus!

Link# 1 Escape!
Link# 2 Dangerous Spacemen

In “The Grand Design,” co-authored with U.S. physicist Leonard Mlodinow, Hawking says a new series of theories made a creator of the universe redundant, according to the Times newspaper which published extracts on Thursday.
“Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist,” Hawking writes.
“It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.”
Hawking, 68, who won global recognition with his 1988 book “A Brief History of Time,” an account of the origins of the universe, is renowned for his work on black holes, cosmology and quantum gravity.
Since 1974, the scientist has worked on marrying the two cornerstones of modern physics — Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, which concerns gravity and large-scale phenomena, and quantum theory, which covers subatomic particles.
His latest comments suggest he has broken away from previous views he has expressed on religion. Previously, he wrote that the laws of physics meant it was simply not necessary to believe that God had intervened in the Big Bang.
He wrote in A Brief History … “If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason — for then we should know the mind of God.”
In his latest book, he said the 1992 discovery of a planet orbiting another star other than the Sun helped deconstruct the view of the father of physics Isaac Newton that the universe could not have arisen out of chaos but was created by God.
“That makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions — the single Sun, the lucky combination of Earth-Sun distance and solar mass, far less remarkable, and far less compelling evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings,” he writes.
Hawking, who is only able to speak through a computer-generated voice synthesizer, has a neuro muscular dystrophy that has progressed over the years and left him almost completely paralyzed.
He began suffering the disease in his early 20s but went on to establish himself as one of the world’s leading scientific authorities, and has also made guest appearances in “Star Trek” and the cartoons “Futurama” and “The Simpsons.”
Last year he announced he was stepping down as Cambridge University’s Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, a position once held by Newton and one he had held since 1979.
“The Grand Design” is due to go on sale next week.

Economy, violence and anti-Semitism cited as primary reasons for decline over the last decade.

To view dictionary popup window put your cursor on the blue words

Anti-Semitism

“Fear•Strongs 3372: aérÎy yare}, yaw-ray´; a primitive root; to fear; morally, to revere; caus. to frighten:—affright, be (make) afraid, dread(-ful), (put in) fear(-ful, -fully, -ing), (be had in) reverence(-end), x see, terrible (act, -ness, thing). not: for I am with thee: I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth;”
—Isa 43:5-6

“O Israel, trust•Strongs 982: batach, baw-takh´; a primitive root; properly, to hie for refuge (but not so precipitately as 2620); figuratively, to trust, be confident or sure:—be bold (confident, secure, sure), careless (one, woman), put confidence, (make to) hope, (put, make to) trust. thou in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.”
—Psalms 115:9

If someone were to rank the most embattled Jewish communities in the world today, the Jewish community of Venezuela would certainly be high on that list. Over the past decade the community has shrunk by half its size.

“Ten years ago we had about 18,000 members,” said Salomon Cohen. “Now we have about 9,500.”

Cohen, head of the Confederacion de Asociaciones Israelitas de Venezuela (CAIV), an umbrella group representing the South American country’s Jewish community, spoke with The Jerusalem Post Tuesday on the sidelines of the World Jewish Congress.

The 55-year-old leader of the Jewish community cited three main causes for the community’s current state.

“First, the economy is not going like it was 10 years before,” he said.

“Second, security in general is very, very bad. We have too many killers in Venezuela.”

Indeed, violent crime is a major issue plaguing Venezuela. According to recent reports the number of civilian deaths in Venezuela in 2009 was approximately 19,000, almost three times higher than that in Iraq.

The third factor cited by Cohen was anti-Semitic attacks on the Jewish community.

“We had about 200 attacks on the community,” Cohen said. “When they want to speak about Venezuela negatively they call it the ‘Israel of South America,’ for instance.”

Part of the problem is that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is a strong ally of Iran, an avowed enemy of Israel. Chavez is a strong critic of Israeli policy and severed ties with Jerusalem in 2009.

Anti-Israel sentiment is widespread and supported by the state. In the halftime of the recent soccer World Cup final, local television aired an ad which showed soccer players wearing jerseys with Israel and Zionist emblazoned on them on a soccer pitch with Palestinian women and children.

“This is not a game, this is a massacre,” the ad declared.

Despite the differences of opinion, Cohen said it was important to remain engaged in dialogue with the government.

“We have direct communication with several government ministers and those in charge of providing security,” he said. “These lines of communication are well established, although we would like to have more.”

The military wing of Hamas, the Islamic group, claimed responsibility for the attack — in which gunmen fired on a vehicle carrying two men and two women at a junction near the city of Hebron — and described it on its Arabic Web site as a “heroic operation.”

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Days of Noah

“But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”
—Matthew 24:37

“And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence•Strongs 2555: chamacç, khaw-mawce´; from 2554; violence; by implication, wrong; by meton. unjust gain:—cruel(-ty), damage, false, injustice, x oppressor, unrighteous, violence (against, done), violent (dealing), wrong
•Strongs 2554: chamacç, khaw-mas´; a primitive root; to be violent; by implication, to maltreat:—make bare, shake off, violate, do violence, take away violently, wrong, imagine wrongfully. through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”
— Genesis 6:13

Ishmael•FYI: Ishmael is the son of Abraham through Hagar, the maid of Abraham’s wife Sarah.
Ishmael is the Biblical father of the Arab nations. •From these nations came Mohammad, who in approximately 632 a.d founded the Religion of Islam.
•The verse below is speaking directly concerning Ishmael and the nations that would come from this direct descendent of Abraham.

“And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.”
—Genesis 16:12

JERUSALEM — The killing of four Israeli settlers, including a pregnant woman, in the West Bank on Tuesday evening rattled Israeli and Palestinian leaders on the eve of peace talks in Washington and underscored the disruptive role that the issue of Jewish settlements could play in the already fragile negotiations.

The military wing of Hamas, the Islamic group, claimed responsibility for the attack — in which gunmen fired on a vehicle carrying two men and two women at a junction near the city of Hebron — and described it on its Arabic Web site as a “heroic operation.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the “atrocious murder,” which Israeli officials said seemed calculated by Hamas to upset the negotiations, which it virulently opposes. Mr. Netanyahu, en route to Washington at the time, said, “Terror will not determine the borders of Israel or the future of settlements.” He ordered Israel’s security forces “to pursue the attackers without any diplomatic restraint,” his office said.

The Palestinian Authority also condemned the attacks, which occurred just before its president, Mahmoud Abbas, met with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. A Palestinian spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said the attack by Hamas, the authority’s rival, underlined “the need to proceed quickly toward a just and lasting peace agreement,” which he said would “put an end to these acts.”

Even before the attack, settlements were looming as a potential deal-breaker in the peace process. Mr. Netanyahu has steadfastly refused to commit to extending a partial moratorium on construction in the West Bank, which expires Sept. 26, while Mr. Abbas has said it will be very hard to keep talking if construction resumes. Mr. Netanyahu has not struck any private deals with President Obama or anyone else on the moratorium, American and Israeli officials said.

Still, the Obama administration, according to officials, is calculating that once the two leaders are in face-to-face negotiations, neither side will be willing to take actions that would capsize the talks in the first month. Mr. Netanyahu, this thinking goes, will offer a compromise that, while it may fall short of an extension of the moratorium, will satisfy the Palestinians that construction will be curbed.

The White House said in a statement: “This brutal attack underscores how far the enemies of peace will go to try to block progress. It is crucial that the parties persevere, keep moving forward even through difficult times and continue working to achieve a just and lasting peace.”

Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Abbas are scheduled to meet Mr. Obama for dinner on Wednesday at the White House, and formally begin negotiations on Thursday in a meeting with Mrs. Clinton. If that goes well, officials hope for a second meeting, possibly in Egypt, in mid-September. Mrs. Clinton may take part in that session, officials said.

A senior Israeli official said that the West Bank attack, the deadliest on Israeli citizens in more than two years, would inevitably heighten the emphasis on Israel’s security in the negotiations. But Palestinian officials noted that the attack took place in an area of the West Bank that is under full Israeli security control, and where the Palestinian security forces have no responsibility and are not allowed to operate.

The victims came from Beit Hagai, a small settlement in the hills south of Hebron, an area known for particularly militant settlers. Israeli forces were combing the area looking for suspects.

Salam Fayyad, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, said in a statement, “We condemn this operation, which contradicts Palestinian interests and the efforts of the Palestinian leadership to garner international support for the national rights of our people.”

Hamas controls Gaza, while Mr. Abbas’s authority is limited to governing the Palestinians of the West Bank.

The claim of responsibility was unusual in that Hamas had refrained from taking responsibility for attacks in recent years. But with a sharp decline in rocket fire from Gaza against southern Israel, some in Gaza have been questioning Hamas’s commitment to fighting Israel.

Hamas said the attack was “a natural response to the crimes of the Israeli occupation and its settlers.” It said the killings demonstrated that the “armed Palestinian resistance is present in the West Bank despite the war to uproot it,” referring to the crackdown by Israeli and Palestinian Authority forces against Hamas in the West Bank.

In the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, hundreds of Hamas supporters took to the streets after the evening prayer to celebrate the news of the attack, urged on by the calls of an imam over the loudspeaker even before Hamas had officially said it was behind the killings.

Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas lawmaker, criticized Mr. Abbas during the rally, saying he was going to the negotiations “representing only himself.” The attack “was the Palestinian people’s response to the talks,” Mr. Masri said.

Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich, an Israeli military spokeswoman, said the shooting followed a two-year period of stability in the West Bank, during which Israel eased many restrictions on the movement of Palestinians. Roadblocks in the area of the attack were removed two years ago.

Settlers, many of whom have little faith in the Palestinians or the prospects of peace, were enraged by the attack. Tzviki Bar-Hai, the chairman of the South Mount Hebron settlers’ council, told Israel Radio, “For the past 100 years there has been a link between the Jewish people’s desire to live and the Arab people’s desire to kill us.”

In July, Israeli security officials said they had arrested several members of Hamas’s military wing who were responsible for the fatal shooting of an Israeli police officer south of Hebron in June.

The stop-and-go Israeli-Palestinian peace process has often taken place in the shadow of bloody attacks. Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister who led the Oslo peace process in the early and mid-1990s, said his philosophy was “to fight terror as if there were no negotiations and conduct the negotiations as if there was no terror.” Mr. Rabin was assassinated by an Israeli right-wing extremist in 1995.

Isabel Kershner reported from Jerusalem, Mark Landler from Washington and Fares Akram from Gaza.

If you think you’ve been seeing more people sleep on city streets, statistics back up the perception. The homeless population living on New York City streets has gone up 50 percent in the past year, according to city statistics reported by the HellsKitchenLife.com blog.

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Perplexity

“…upon the earth distress•Strongs 4928: sunoche, soon-okh-ay´; from 4912; restraint, i.e. (figuratively) anxiety: — anguish, distress. of nations, with perplexity•Strongs 640: aporia, ap-or-ee´-a; from the same as 639; a (state of) quandary:—perplexity.
•Strongs 639: aporeo, ap-or-eh´-o; from a compound of 1 (as a negative particle) and the base of 4198; to have no way out, i.e. be at a loss (mentally):— (stand in) doubt, be perplexed….”
—Luke 21:25

The New York City Department of Homeless Services conducts a yearly survey of the streets of the city to count the number of homeless who are not in shelters. The HOPE survey was conducted in January 2010.

The number of homeless in the borough of Manhattan was up 47 percent in the past year, according to the count. The 2010 count had 1,145 people living in the streets. That is up 368 from 2009.

Brooklyn had the biggest increase of any borough. It saw a homeless increase of more than 100 percent in 2010.

More than 1,000 people now live in New York City’s subway system — up 11 percent in the past year.

While the numbers are alarming, they are still at historically low levels and the ratio of homeless to the general population remains low compared to other major cities, according to the city. The HOPE survey showed a 29 percent drop in homelessness from 2005.

DHS works to prevent homelessness and also provides short-term emergency shelter. The agency seeks to help homeless individuals move from shelters back to permanent housing.

For example, the DHS says it provided temporary, emergency shelter to 8,230 families with children — equating to 25,204 adults and children in July. But the agency says shelters have seen fewer families. From October 2009 through June 2010, shelters had 11 percent fewer children, who are now back in homes of their own.

IISS Senior Fellow for Missile Defence, says Iran’s latest missile test reveals much about its development programme

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Moving Towards Ezekiel 38-39

“Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:”
—Ezekiel 38:5

Editors note about the word Persia•FYI: Many Bible teachers believe Persia is the area of present day Iran.

On 20 August, Iranian Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi announced that Iran had test-fired a new surface-to-surface missile, the Qiam (Rising). Vahidi did not say when and where the test-launch took place, though state-run television showed images and video of the new Iranian missile later that same day. Assuming the test was recent, it was in violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1929, which was adopted on 9 June and explicitly states that: ‘Iran shall not undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using ballistic missile technology.’

Despite the scarcity of detail about the Qiam, the launch reveals much about the status of Iran’s missile development efforts and the direction they may take in the near future.

Vahidi made his announcement of the missile one day before Russia was scheduled to begin loading fuel into the Bushehr nuclear reactor, and two days before Iran unveiled its long-distance ‘stealth’ drone Karrar (Striker). The minister said the Qiam 1 was ‘part of the new generation of the Islamic Republic’s surface-to-surface missiles’ and ‘completely designed and built domestically’. He added that the new missile ‘enjoys enhanced agility due to the scrapping of its fins’ and was guided by a smart navigation system that enables the missile to hit targets ‘with high precision’.

Photographs of the Qiam published by the Fars News Agency and other state-run media show a liquid-propellant missile with overall dimensions consistent with Iran’s existing Shahab-2 (Scud-C). The new missile’s acceleration profile, as measured from videos of the launch aired on Iranian television, also matches that of the Shahab-2. The Qiam, however, has a newly designed nose-cone, or re-entry vehicle (RV), and the aerodynamic fins at the aft end of the missile have been removed. While these modifications were undoubtedly of local origin, undertaken by Iranian engineers, the original Shahab-2 missile, from which the Qiam is derived, is most likely imported, casting doubt on Vahidi’s assertion of independent, domestic production.

The Shahab-2 has a very simple, cone-shaped warhead section with a base that attaches to the missile’s main body. The Qiam’s nosecone has a smaller diameter conically-shaped forward section, behind which is a short, 0.6m-diameter cylindrical section. The cylindrical section is mated to a conically-shaped flange that attaches to the airframe. The ‘baby-bottle’ shape appears to be a copy of Ghadr-1(and Sajjil-2) nosecone, although the conical flange that connects the warhead to the airframe has been truncated for the Qiam to account for its smaller airframe diameter. The Qiam airframe is 0.88m in diameter, while the main body of the Ghadr-1 is 1.25m. An interesting point, however, is that the Ghadr-1 warhead, when it detaches from the main body before re-entering the earth’s atmosphere, separates at a point about half-way up the cylindrically shaped flange. The diameter of the flange at the separation point is 0.88m, the same diameter as the Qiam’s airframe. This means that any warheads designed for the Ghadr-1 and Sajjil-2 can also be used by the new Qiam missile. The consolidation of warhead and re-entry vehicle design is economical and efficient.

The removal of the aft aerodynamic fins is more difficult to explain because their absence degrades the missile’s aerodynamic stability during ascent. Consequently, Iran’s decision to fly the Qiam without fins strongly suggests that engineers replaced the antiquated, Soviet-built guidance unit used in the Shahab-2 with a more modern one, most likely a strap-down unit capable of continuously making course corrections during the boost-phase. While the addition of a more capable navigation and guidance unit will certainly improve the accuracy of the Qiam relative to the Shahab-2, the new missile is still too inaccurate to conduct military missions effectively when armed with a conventional warhead. Indeed, without the incorporation of precise thrust-termination mechanisms or a post-boost control system, Iran’s missiles, including the Qiam, will continue to fall short of Vahidi’s boasts of precision.

The rationale for removing the aft fins is difficult to determine, but one possible explanation centres on Iran’s probable desire to launch missiles from a canister. Placing the Qiam — or future missiles — in a launch-canister, as is done with American, Russian, Chinese and French ballistic missiles, would protect it from the sometimes harsh external environment experienced during storage, transport, and deployment. The launch-canisters could be housed in the silos Iran is reportedly constructing near Tabriz and Khorramabad, or on a new transporter-erector-launcher.

Testing the finless missile configuration using the Qiam may be part of a larger, more ambitious programme aimed at the Ghadr-1 and Sajjil-2, both of which presently have aerodynamic fins. While the Ghadr-1, and especially the Sajjil-2, which is powered by temperature-sensitive solid-propellant, would benefit from the environmental protection provided by launch-canisters, developing finless technologies using these larger missiles would be expensive. If supplies of these systems are limited, a test programme using them would consume Iran’s most important strategic assets. The Shahab-1/-2, which Tehran has in large numbers, is a more practical platform for developing technologies. Lessons learned using the smaller, less expensive missiles could be subsequently applied to the more valuable missiles with minimal testing. The Qiam development efforts should therefore be monitored closely to determine if the missile is a precursor to future modifications of the Ghadr-1 and Sajjil-2. Undoubtedly, the use of launch-canisters will result in new deployment concepts.

The appearance of the Qiam is not surprising. It is consistent with Iran’s sustained, long-term efforts to enhance the technical knowledge and wherewithal of the country’s missile engineers, while at the same time improving the performance and reliability of its ballistic missile forces. The emergence of Iran’s robust and disciplined engineering culture, which is roughly on par with India’s capabilities two decades ago, shows that sanctions and export control regimes have not been able to halt progress . Any effort to destroy Iran’s missile production and testing facilities would not prevent Iran from becoming a missile power in the future; it has the knowledge and experience to resurrect the physical infrastructure as needed.

Iranian official: Teheran will hit Dimona if attacked

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Syria and Damascus

“The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous•Strongs 4654: mappalah, map-paw-law´; or mappelah, map-pay-law´; from 5307; something fallen, i.e. a ruin:—ruin( ous). heap.”
—Isaiah 17:1

“Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars.”
—Zechariah 11:1

Moving Towards Ezekiel 38-39

“Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:”
—Ezekiel 38:5

Editors note about Persia and Hezblooah•FYI: Many Bible teachers believe Persia is the area of present day Iran.
It certainly appears that, Hezblooah, is a surrogate army for Iran and is supplied through Syria.

The Syrian army signed a defense alliance with Hizbullah, a Kuwaiti paper reported on Monday.

According to the report in Al- Rai, in case of war, the two will split a “bank” of targets in Israel, and Syrian radars will supply Hizbullah operatives with intelligence on the location of Israeli aircraft, to assist Hizbullah in aiming anti-aircraft weapons.

The alliance radically changes the balance of power in the North, because it means in any future confrontation the IDF will be faced with attacks from both the northern and northeastern borders.

The IDF was surprised by Hizbullah’s level of organization during the Second Lebanon War in 2006. Syrian assistance in intelligence gathering would give the Shi’ite organization a technological advantage that would bring it even closer to the level of an organized military.

During the 2006 war, Israel warned Syria not to intervene, and it avoided clashing with the IDF. According to the new pact, each of the parties will rush to assist the other in case of confrontation with Israel.

In Damascus, Syrian President Bashar Assad urged Lebanon’s leader to support Hizbullah and maintain calm in the country.

Assad met with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri in the Syrian capital for a predawn suhour meal, the last meal before the daytime fast resumes during Ramadan, the Syrian state-run news agency reported.

Hariri has visited Damascus repeatedly this year, in a sign of Syria’s renewed influence over Lebanon. Hariri’s visits indicate that he needs Syrian support as his Western-backed coalition struggles at home.

Syria backs Hizbullah, which has a large role in Lebanon’s fragile national unity government.

Last week, street battles in Beirut between the Shi’ite Hizbullah and a small Sunni group resulted in the deaths of three people.

Hariri was expected on Monday to head the first meeting of a new committee formed to discuss ways of ridding the Lebanese capital of weapons.

Meanwhile, an Iranian official told the London-based Arabic-language newspaper Asharq al-Awsat that Teheran would target Israel’s Dimona reactor if the Islamic Republic was hit by an Israeli or US air strike.

“Teheran is aware that Israel and the United States want to target Iran, but we are also aware that while they actually have the option to launch war, they do not have the option to end it. This is America’s and Israel’s point of weakness.

We know that there is no solution to this point of weakness, thanks to the importance of the Gulf region, America’s problems in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the small area of the Zionist entity,” the unnamed official was quoted by the paper as saying.

The official added that the Iranian regime did not see any strong reason to reach an accommodation with Israel because of the view of Israel’s declining strategic value among Western countries, including the US.

“We believe that the United States is looking for a strong partner in the region as an alternative to its dependence on Israel in the future. We in Iran believe that the United States and the Western nations now view Israel more as a burden and that Israel is incapable of contributing to achieving peace in the Middle East,” the official told Asharq al-Awsat.

The official went on to say that the Islamic Republic would seek to expand its presence in Syria and Lebanon as Israel’s influence in the region declined and Iran acquired nuclear capability.

Last week, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told the Iranian people by radio that a regional war initiated by Teheran was a distinct possibility, adding that “Israel is committed to defending its citizens and if attacked will act accordingly.”

The comments, released by the Foreign Ministry in Hebrew last Tuesday, came during a Farsi-language broadcast on Israel Radio in which Ayalon addressed the people of Iran, took calls and answered questions. The Farsi broadcast originally aired last Monday.

“A fear exists that Iran – as it becomes more pressured by sanctions – will goad those under its patronage in Hizbullah and Hamas to initiate military action against Israel. There’s also a possibility that Iran will make a military move against the Arab Gulf states and harm the flow of oil to the world, in which case the entire situation will degrade into widespread confrontations.

Remember that the sanctions are aimed against Iran’s efforts to arm itself with nuclear weapons, and if they don’t elicit results, the United States and other nations might consider other options,” Ayalon said.

AP contributed to this report.